The consciousness appears at birth and it disappears at death. You remain. Consciousness needs your body for its manifestation. That how you became a knower. When life produces another body, another knower comes into being.

As a knower you have a sense of a separate existence. This sense is a reflection in your body of your real self. In this reflection the unlimited and the limited are confused and taken to be the same. To undo this confusion is the purpose of Ashtanga Yoga.

What was born must die. The goal of yoga practice is to find out what is it that never sleeps and never wakes. And you start from this pale reflection, from this sense of 'I'.

Ashtanga yoga, this boring, steady, repetitious practice is keeping you free from contradictions. Call it honesty, integrity, wholeness, you must do it everyday, not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the conquered ground. Tenacity of purpose and honesty in practice will bring you to your goal.

You don't practice to gain "immortality". There is no such thing. When birth and death are seen as two aspects of life, that is immortality. Definitely, immortality is not continuity. Only the process of change continues. Nothing lasts.

To practice Ashtanga yoga as a person leads nowhere. Your existence as a person depends on the existence of the world and it is defined by the others. You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment.

Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. The Ashtanga yoga unmasks your laziness and your imagination about yourself. The practice shows you that your sense of self is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. Nice words, appreciation or an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call a person, changes deeply.

Daily practice of Ashtanga yoga forces you to watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: 'I am'. While breathing and focusing your drishti you are left to yourself. You, as a person, fades away, you have no notion of being something, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on.

Your usual attitude is of 'I am this'. The practice separates consistently your 'I am' from 'this' or 'that', so you feel what it means to be, just to be, without being 'this' or 'that'.

All your habits go against Ashtanga yoga and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but the understanding helps a lot. All will come as you practice. Go on the yoga mat and turn within. 'I am' you know. Be with it while breathing those 5 breaths in each asana. There is no simpler and easier way for awakening.